ARCADIA – Sent postward as the 1-5 favorite and coming off a 14-week layoff, trainer Bobby Frankel was a bit uneasy about how Breeders’ Cup champion Ventura would perform in Saturday’s $300,000 Grade I Santa Monica Handicap for older fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

“If she’s 10-1, I wouldn’t have been so nervous,” Frankel said of his 5-year-old mare Ventura, who hadn’t raced since a powerful four-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Oct. 24 at Santa Anita.

Frankel didn’t need to worry.

Ventura, tracking honest fractions of :23.22, :45.81 and 1:09.59 from fourth much of the way during the seven-furlong race on the synthetic Pro-Ride surface, closed strongly under two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Garrett Gomez to register a one-length victory over stablemate Jibboom.

Asked if he was comfortable with Ventura’s early position in the race, Frankel cracked, “I was comfortable about 10 jumps from the wire. But I was glad the gray (Jibboom) was second at the time.”

The victory was Ventura’s fifth in eight U.S. starts and eighth in 16 races overall. She increased her career earnings to $1,539,470 with the first-place check for $180,000.

Frankel won the Santa Monica in 2000 with another top-flight filly, Honest Lady, who held a special place in the Hall of Fame trainer’s heart.

Ventura, a daughter of Chester House, ran the distance in 1:21.61 while scoring her fourth win in five tries on artificial surfaces. She’s 4 for 11 on the grass but has never raced on dirt.

“I might get tempted (to try her on dirt),” Frankel said, adding that this year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita in November is probably the long-range goal.

Next up, however, is the $300,000 Madison Stakes at Keeneland on April 9, a race Ventura won by one length in 2008 when it was a Grade II event.

“It’s a Grade I now, and it’s seven furlongs,” Frankel said. “Plus, the horses weight themselves, so it’s not a handicap.”

Ventura has won three of four starts at seven furlongs, all three wins while paired with Gomez, who has ridden the mare in all eight of her starts since she debuted in the U.S. with a two-length allowance victory at Santa Anita last March.

Gomez said he felt comfortable the entire race Saturday, getting into her in the stretch only because she tends to loaf when she makes the lead.

“She thinks her job is done,” he said. “That’s the only reason she got beat in the race at Hollywood Park (CashCall Mile on July 5).

“I’ve learned that I’ve just got to spank her a little bit and that way she knows she’s not done.”

The Santa Monica was originally supposed to be a rematch between Ventura and Indian Blessing of their Breeders’ Cup race, when Ventura ran Indian Blessing down in the stretch to win the $1 million event.

But trainer Bob Baffert elected to scratch Indian Blessing, who won an Eclipse Award last Monday night as the top female sprinter, and freshen her up for the $2 million Golden Shaheen at Dubai on March 28 against the males.

Asked when the two might hook up again, Frankel said it might not happen until the Breeders’ Cup.

“I don’t think Indian Blessing will run against (Ventura) at Keeneland because she’s going to Dubai,” he said.

Jibboom, ridden by Rafael Bejarano, was 2<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>4 lengths clear of third-place finisher She’s Cheeky. Tizzy’s Tune, Baroness Thatcher and So Long Sonoma completed the order of finish in a race reduced to six with the scratches of Indian Blessing and Wake Up Maggie.

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